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Copy 1 ^^^^^ '^^S AiMERlCAN HISTORICAL MAGAZINE, NEV/ YO 

SEPTEI\^BER ISSUE, 1.^08. 



A DAEK PERIOD OF OUR CIVIL WAR 
AND A NOTABLE SPEECH OF THAT TIME 

BY DUANE MOWRY 

IT is uot generally known that the late ex-Senator James 
R. Doolittle, for twelve years— from 1857 to 1869— a sen- 
ator from Wisconsin, had it in mind to write something of 
the political history of this country covered by his own 
active and aggressive public life. He had seriously entered 
upon the preparation of considerable manuscript at the time 
of his death. The fact that he was a poor man, in so far as 
this world's goods are concerned, was undoubtedly, the princi- 
pal reason that prevented him from carrying out his original 
purpose. He could not afford wholly to surrender the time 
necessary to prepare this history and neglect the duty of bread- 
winning which his straitened financial circumstances demanded. 
Nevertheless, such a book was near and dear to his heart. And 
it would have been a source of keen satisfaction if he could have 
submitted such a volume to the American people. 

Among the manuscripts prepared by Judge Doolittle for such 
a history of his time, the following will have a peculiar interest 
for the student of the time included in the war of the rebellion. 
The original matter is in the writer's possession and has never 
been published. 

"The darkest and gloomiest period of our civil war was when 
the thirty-seventh congress adjourned in March, 1863. It was 
after the Peninsular Campaign of 1862 under General McClel- 
lan had failed; that campaign resulted not in capturing Rich- 
mond, as was hoped and expected ; but, after many battles and 
great sacrifices, it resulted in a retreat to Harrison's Landing 
for protection by our gunboats. 'It was from there, after this 
retreat, that McClellan, July 3rd, 1862, telegraphed to the sec- 
retary of war, the saddest news that ever came to Washington : 

(525) 




3 

526 A DARK PERIOD OF OUR CIVIL WAR 

'To accomplish the great task of capturing Richmond and put- 
ting an end to this rebellion, re-inforcements should be sent to 
me rather much over than less than 100,000 men.' 

'^ Pope's Virginia Campaign and the defeat at the Second 
Bull Run soon followed ; that was equally depressing. Not long 
after came the dreadful slaughter and repulse of the army of 
the Potomac, under Burnside at Fredericksburg in December, 

1862. These misfortunes, we might rather say, these great 
disasters, were followed, in February, 1863, by a number of bold 
and successful raids by the rebel cavalry across the Rappa- 
hannock and Potomac, not very far from Washington; one, 
December 25th, by J. E. B. Stuart, across the Rappahannock, 
capturing 26 wagons and 200 prisoners, and burning some rail- 
road bridges; another, by Imboden's troopers, February 16th, 

1863, surprising a supply train, capturing 76 men, 27 wagons 
and a hundred horses ; a third, by Fitz Hugh Lee, February 
25th, 1863, surprising a camp, capturing 150 prisoners ; and a 
fourth, February 26th, 1863, by General W. E. Jones, more 
daring still, routing two regiments and capturing many prison- 
ers. 

"The news of this last raid was received at Washington just 
before the day of adjournment. It produced great excitement 
in Washington ; in the senate chamber— almost a panic. A res- 
olution requesting the president to appoint a day of prayer and 
humiliation was unanimously adopted, while senators in private 
conversation, gave way, almost to despair; some of them wring- 
ing their hands, saying: 'All is lost,' and at the same time com- 
plaining most bitterly of the president and of all the Generals 
who had been in command of the army of the Potomac. 

*'It was this gloomy state of things — this panic— which 
prompted— or rather inspired the following extemporaneous 
speech fi-om Senator Doolittle of Wisconsin. Tt came as an out- 
burst ol" the soul, it sjiows that a belief that the United States 
of America is (lod's Rejniblic, is no new belief with him; that 
belief sustained and cheered him thei'e, in that hour which sorely 
tried the souls of Tiien. We wish every thoughtful young man 
and young woman in the I'nited States might read that speech. 



oin 



A DARK PERIOD" OF OUR CIVIL WAR 527 

It is found in volume 62 of the Congressional Globe, part II 
and appendix, pp. 1530-31. 

'' 'In Senate, March 3, 1863. Half past eleven o'clock. Mr. 
Doolittle said: 

'^ 'Mr. President: The last hour of the session is passing 
away. There can be no more practical legislation. I would 
not spend this last hour in crimination and re-crimination. 
Bather let us for a single moment look back on the session about 
to close, — the most laborious, the most momentous in our whole 
history. 

'^ 'Sir, the Congress which is now expiring, will live forever 
in that history. It has passed more laws, it has passed more 
important measures than any other since the Government began, 
—important from every point of view, for their magnitude, and 
for the great principles which are involved in those measures. 
Look at the financial measures brought forward and passed; 
involving more than a thousand million dollars; at the great 
currency measure which has passed at this session of Con- 
gress ; which is to give us a national currency, based not upon 
monopoly, but upon free banking; at the great military meas- 
ures, necessary to command our whole force on land and on sea, 
to put down this rebellion; at the organization of our national 
armies; at the organization of our national navy; those great 
and gigantic measures worthy of what we are, and are to be, 
by which we are about to demonstrate to the world that this 
nation still lives— aye, sir, more, that this nation not only lives, 
but is to become, if it is not already, on sea and land, the great- 
est military power of the earth. 

" 'Other measures, unsuited to times of peace, of great im- 
portance, have been enacted. We have been called upon, in this 
time of civil war, to authorize the president to issue letters of 
marque and reprisal; and to declare by the almost unanimous 
voice of both houses of congress that any further efforts by 
France or England, or any other foreign power, to intervene or 
attempt to mediate in our affairs with a view to recognize the 
independent and separate existence of the southern rebellious 
confederacy, based as it is upon slavery as its chief corner 
stone, will be regarded as an unfriendly act toward this gov- 



528 A DARK PERIOD OF OUR CIVIL WAR 

eminent, and at war with the fundamental principles of Chris- 
tian civilization throughout the world. Should the European 
nations disregard our declaration thus solemnly made, God only 
knows what consequences may follow. We know we are right, 
and upon them will rest all the consequences. 

'^ 'Besides these measures, one half of which I have not men- 
tioned, so great and important, see what is going on here at 
home. While this war is raging; while the leaders of this 
unholy rebellion against every law, human and divine, are 
endeavoring to sever the cotton states from this Union, we have 
just passed through this body, — this last night of the session, 
—bills to admit two new states into this glorious sisterhood of 
states; two new states, soon to equal California in their min- 
eral wealth and resources; two great states— golden states — 
on the great highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific,— on the 
line of the railroad (another great measure of the present con- 
gress), states which, as they become developed, are to bind in 
eternal embrace the East and the West, and make the union 
between our Atlantic and Pacific empire perpetual. 

*' 'Sir, I would not detain the senate, but I cannot forbear to 
allude to one or two to])ics more before I close. Look for a 
moment at the glorious free states of this Union. What a 
spectacle do they present to the civilized world! At this very 
hour, when we are in the midst of a gigantic war, our ships, 
laden with the voluntary contributions of the American people, 
are crossing the ocean three thousand miles to feed the starv- 
ing children of the old world; speaking to them as we can. as 
no other nation on the earth can speak: 'We have bread enough 
and to spare; land enough and to spare; come and enjoy them 
almost without money and without price. If too ])oor to couio, we 
will send the broad to feed you.' 

'"' 'In spite of rebellion at home; in s|)ite of threatened inter- 
vention fi'om abroad; we will be ti'ue to ourselves, true to 
humanity, ti-ue to the great i)rinciple which is the foundation 
stone of our Republic— Liberty, liipiality and Fraternity. How 
should the i)eople of the free states bless (Jod, the Almighty, 
that in his mercy thus far, in llic midst of this gigantic war, 
not one foot of their soil has hccii i-eddened with the blood of 



A DARK PERIOD OF OUR CIVIL WAR 529 

this conflict. It has been confined to the insurrectionary dis- 
tricts; and the man or the men in those free states who sym- 
pathize with this rebellion, and who would transfer its bloody 
and devastating work to their hitherto peaceful and prosperous 
fields and cities and towns, should meet the indignant frowns 
of every man, woman and child. Ay, sir, justice should lash him 
with a whip of scorpions naked from the face of civilized man. 
But, sir, these sympathizers are already alarmed. They begin to 
go back to their hiding places. The day of judg-ment and of final 
retribution for them is at hand. They will call on the rocks and 
the mountains to cover them. We are to crush and put down 
this rebellion and all its aiders, abettors and sympathizers. This 
nation is to stand before the world, greater, more powerful, 
and more glorious than it has ever yet been, or than has ever 
entered into the imagination of man to conceive. 

' ' ' Mr. President, it is in the utterance of sentiments like these 
that I would have this congress expire. T would have the last 
work spoken here, in the American senate, declare the unalter- 
able purpose of the American people to be, to crush out this 
wicked rebellion. So far from giving over this controversy, in 
which we are now engaged, let that last word say to the world ; 
—to traitors at home, and to those who would intervene from 
abroad: 'We have just begun to fight; we are just bending 
ourselves to give our whole energies to the contest ; we will fight 
it through; we will never surrender our sovereignty to our 
territories on the Gulf.' 

'' 'We bought Florida on purpose to get rid of a foreign 
power holding jurisdiction on the north side of the gulf; we 
bought Louisiana to hold the mouth of the Mississippi, upon 
grounds of the highest political necessity; and, in the name of 
the great North- West, I say, that they will hold the mouth of the 
Mississippi river, though they reduce Louisiana to what it was 
when we took it, a territory of swamps and crocodiles. They 
will never surrender it to any foreign power. Let us say to 
England and France, and to the whole civilized world, that to 
talk to us about our admitting the independence of another 
power holding the mouth of the Mississippi and our coast upon 
the Gulf of Mexico, is to talk of war with the United States. 



530 A DARK PERIOD OF OUR CIVIL WAR 

Sir, it is necessary to our national life; every day and every 
hour but strengthen the conviction that we must hold it, though 
it shall involve foreign war ; though it should bring the upheav- 
ing of the world. We shall never surrender our power there. 
We shall never give over the controversy. If this generation 
fail, our children after us will continue the struggle. 

'' 'I hope the senate will pardon me for giving utterance to 
such strong language. My feelings would not allow me to say 
less. Sir, I admit that sometimes the clouds hang over us with 
thick darkness; sometimes the light is almost obscured; yet, I 
have been blessed with that abiding faith, which, in the darkest 
hour, feels no doubt of our ultimate success. Our cause is the 
cause of humanity, the cause of constitutional liberty, for our- 
selves and for all mankind. There have been times, it is true, 
when the public mind has been oppressed with gloom; some- 
times with apprehension; but beyond these clouds and through 
that gloom, I believe we can see the dawning light of the com- 
ing day. Sir, it is a part of my religious conviction, and I do 
not hesitate to declare even here, that this Republic, the United 
States of America, is that political power upon earth which the 
prophets have foretold, for which the good men of all ages have 
longed and prayed ; and for whose success and duration. Heav- 
en, with all its omnipotence, stands pledged. Sir, I believe that 
truth and justice, that liberty and law will triumph, and that 
the day of that triumph is drawing near.' 

"In just four months after the delivery of the foregoing 
speech, came the great victory of Gettysburg, and the surrender 
of Vicksburg— the beginning of the end of the Rebellion. 

''In another most trying emergency, the same abiding and 
unwavering faith in God showed itself. In 1864, when many 
leading Republicans were using all their power and influence 
to get Lincoln to withdraw in favor of some other candidate, Mr. 
Doolittle gave utterance to these words at a memorable speech 
at Springfield:. 'Fellow Citizens: — I believe in God, the Al- 
mighty; under Him, I believe in Abraham Lincoln.' 

"This speech of thirteen words was received with such cheers 
and doiiionstrations by nearly 20,000 men that for a long time. 



A DARK PERIOD OF OUR CIVIL WAR 531 

for the space of nearly half an hour, it was not possible for him 
to speak another word." 

This speech of Senator Doolittle at the hour of closing of 
the thirty-seventh congress had a wonderful effect in the North, 
It inspired hope among the loyal citizens of the country. It 
gave renewed vigor to the dormant activities of many of the 
slumbering soldiers at the front. It aided President Lincoln 
in the prosecution of the work of the war. Judge Doolittle at 
once took a prominent place in the confidential councils of the 
nation. His absolute sincerity and honesty of purpose, shown 
by this short speech, was the talk of the country. The Honor- 
able Thomas Ewing, his intimate friend and trusted advisor, 
assured him '^that this was a very noble speech," certainly an 
opinion he need not be ashamed of. The speech was, indeed, 
most opportune. 

It was not possible for Judge Doolittle to take neutral ground 
upon any important public question, or with relation to any 
prominent public man. So it was quite natural for him to 
declare for Abraham Lincoln for re-election for president. He 
could not do otherwise. He believed in him and believed that 
he was the man for the existing conditions in the country. He 
was prompt in so announcing his convictions. He was, indeed, 
a truly great public man, although often maligned and misrep- 
resented. His fame, however, is safe. 



RY OF CONGRESS 



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JOHN ADAMS ON JOHN HANCOCK 

[From a Letter of John Adams to William Tudor, dated Quincy, 
Mass., June 1, 1817.) 

YOU ''never profoundly admired Mr. Hancock. He 
had vanity and caprice." I can say, with truth, that 
I profoundly admired him, and more profoundly 
loved him. If he had vanity and caprice, so had I. 
And if his vanity and caprice made me some times sputter, as 
you know they often did, mine, I well know, had often a similar 
effect upon him*^ But these little flickerings of little passions 
determine nothing concerning essential characters. I knew Mr. 
Hancock from his cl^^dle to his grave. He was radically gen- 
erous and benevolent. He was born in this town, half way 
between this house ani our congregational temple, son of a 
clergyman of this parish, 'and grandson of a clergyman of Lex- 
ington, both of excellent characters. We were at the same 
school together, as soon asX^e were out of petticoats. His 
father died when he was very >oung. His uncle, the most opu- 
lent merchant in Boston, who Had no children, adopted him, 
placed him in Mr. Lovell's sch6^, educated him at Harvard 
college, and then took him into hisVstore. 

And what a school was this! F(^v large ships constantly 
plying between Boston and London, ai^ other business in pro- 
portion. This was in 1755. He becamd' an example to all the 
young men of the town. Wholly devoted to business, he was as 
regular and punctual at his store as the san in his course. His 
uuele sent him to London, from whence, after a residence of 
about a year, he returned to his store, with tha same habits of 
business, unaltered in manners or deportment, and pursued 
his oniploynients with the same punctuality and assiduity, till 
the death ol' his uncle, who left him his business, his credit, and 
his fortune; who did more— he left him the protector of his 
widow. This lady, though her husband left her a handsome in- 

(532) 



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